With summer basically upon us, everyone’s coming out with their “Summer Reading Guide” or “Summer Reading Menu,” which is all fine and good. Let’s take advantage of the various avenues by which we might discover our next favorite read! What I’ve put together for y’all as one of those possible avenues is a Summer Reading Matrix.

Instead of putting together a list of recommendations broken into sub-categories by genre, I went a different route. What strikes me as important as you tackle your summer reading aspirations is having some general idea about what the time commitment is. Because, as Phineas and Ferb told us as kids, there’s only so many days of the season yet so many things one could get up to to pass the time. I can imagine reading isn’t the only thing you’ll be getting up to—or that’s demanding your time—so I want you to go into a book with a grasp on how much it might ask of you.

You’ve got four ways to orient yourself within this matrix. On the far left of the x-axis is Slow, and on the far right of it is Fast. Top of the y-axis is Slim, and all the way at the bottom is Thick. You see where this is going, right?

Let’s say you’re going to the beach and want something snappy and easy to sink into for the day. You’ll check out the quadrant of Slim and Fast. Let’s say you’re not particular about physical length but want to really spend your time with a slow-paced book. That’s the entire left side of the graph, top to bottom.

I’ve got graphic novels in there, nonfiction, Classics, contemporary, a rom-com or two. Admittedly, I’m light on horror/thriller (I don’t read that hardly ever; it affects my sleep too much), and also sci-fi, which is a genre I’ve been meaning to make more time for. Poetry isn’t included, though I have plenty of titles I could point you in the direction of, because I find those tricky to place on the scale of Slow and Fast. Most people suggest you take your time with poetry collections, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they read slow, you feel?

I’m not under the impression that all my recommendations are going to be gold for you, but I have a lot of confidence that what you pick up from this matrix will be enjoyable. Will bring you good stories and great writing and are worth your while. At the risk of sounding boastful, I’ve read 1,564 books at the time of this writing, and I’ve made it a point to read widely. The breadth of my reading scope, I think, helps me consume such a range of stories that I’d really be shocked if I couldn’t recommend at least one book to anyone who asked me.

If you do pick something up from this matrix, you should let me know if you agree with which quadrant it falls in because I’m curious how other readers will find these same books. It is far from a new thing that one reader experiences a book in a particular way and it hits the next reader in the exact opposite way. Funny how that works sometimes.

The hope, though, is that you’ll see a title that’ll help you scratch that itch to read. It doesn’t matter if you spend all summer keeping company with one book or if you speed through ten. I’ll also say this: Don’t let the Slow and Thick quadrant intimidate you. You read large books the same way you read small ones—one page at a time.

Now, without further ado, allow me to introduce you to the Summer Reading Matrix and the guide to all the books included on it!